<nettime> Now, that was personal...

["Slobodan Markovic" <twiddle@EUnet.yu>]

    Early yesterday morning, about 04:40 am, NATO attacked Belgrade again. 

    Judging to some Pentagon officials previous statements and the targets
    of this attack, it seems that it was one of those air-raids aimed
    primarily to "frighten Serbs". 

    Smells like a revenge to me... Like someone was really angry because
    NATO strikes didn't (like some magic wand) brought peace to Kosovo and
    found out that citizens of Belgrade are guilty for that... :-(

    Well, let's see those *mean* objects that were hit last night:

    First - totally marginal, small military barracks in eastern part of
    Belgrade (called Zvezdara). Now, I'm not very informed person on
    Yugoslav army's facilities, but I know Zvezdara like my own pocket.
    I spent whole my childhood there. I went to a primary school that is
    only 30 meters from those barracks and through school windows anyone
    could always see what were soldiers doing.

    On a 2 km square field, there were some shooting ranges, sports
    terrains, sleeping house and one dining house. Nothing more, nothing
    less. During the time of former SFRY, my relative from Croatia served
    army in those barracks. He was there for one year and he didn't passed
    any special training - just standard infantry stuff: getting up at 5 am,
    eating, jogging, shooting, going out for a walk, sleeping...

    So, 700.000$ cruise missile or a bit cheaper aircraft bomb, hit early
    this morning those barracks, totally destroying only - dining house. On
    the TV I even saw some potatoes and onions scattered all around... The
    only real victim of this attack was my primary school. All windows, on
    all floors broke and some walls cracked.

                            NATO, this was personal!

                                       ;-<

    Second - totally marginal, empty, old administrative building of
    Yugoslav air force (that has been used for curtoase celebration
    gatherings and balls for years) was hit in the middle of north-western
    part of Belgrade (called Zemun).

    Zemun is one of the oldest parts of Belgrade, if not the oldest one, and
    it is very dense inhabited. Missile exploded in the very centre of Zemun
    (in "The Main Street"), 200 meters far from Zemun Gymnasium and nearby
    Hospital. The building is destroyed, just like many shops and pubs
    across the street. There are also some injured citizens with lighter
    wounds, mostly caused by broken glass...

    This NATO air-raid lasted much longer than any other these days. About
    06:30 I opened my window to breath some fresh air, when I saw heavy AA
    gun fire on the southern horizon of the city. The fireworks lasted for
    5 minutes and then everything was finally over for yesterday...

    Will see what tomorrow will bring...

    Greetings,

            Slobodan Markovic   | http://solair.eunet.yu/~twiddle
            Internodium Project | http://www.internodium.org.yu














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